13 Going on 30

I picked this up out of morbid curiosity, and unsurprisingly it was quite dull. A beat-for-beat retelling of the movie partially sanitized for a middle school demographic. 13 Going on 30 is probably one of the least adaptable rom coms a publisher could pick (is it even the same story without that soundtrack?), but it made more sense when I realized this was aiming at the preteen novella market rather than grocery store moms.

The biggest change is they got rid of Andy Serkis' ball vice joke (boo), and made Wendy less of a last minute villain (good). The ending confession is still weird and awkward and the conservative nostalgia even more explicit, but this time it reads less as pining for the 80s and more a loose dislike of techno and feminine sexuality (a lateral move if anything). The one change I quite like is leaving Jenna 13 rather than flash cutting to her wedding. It takes some of the bitterness away from Jenna breaking up a couple on their wedding day and feels more optimistic as Jenna actually gets to live her life.

Missed Judy Greer on every page.